Retirement Planning is a difficult balancing act of allocating your money in a responsible way and making proper decisions. A recent article offered by Investopedia gave an easy to read, common sense approach to the mistakes one should avoid when planning for retirement. After the financial crisis of 2008 wreaked havoc on so many retirement Click to Continue

America’s largest mutual life insurer just announced very strong first-quarter life insurance sales and immediate annuity sales. New York Life saw a record year in sales in 2012 and it would appear as though they are continuing in that direction for 2013. The first quarter sales include single premium immediate annuities, where New York Life Click to Continue

Based on a recent survey of servicemembers and their families, honesty and trustworthiness are the two most important factors for consumers when choosing a financial advisor. While I understand that this isn’t necessarily earth-shattering news, it does reinforce that honesty and trust are attributes that every successful advisor must convey. The survey, which was commissioned Click to Continue

In an effort to increase productivity and save on operational costs, New York-based MetLife has cut 2,500 financial advisors from its workforce. That’s almost one-third of the total amount of MetLife advisors as of 2012. The company also eliminated 25 agencies, leaving only 60 in the U.S. MetLife’s variable annuity sales have been down considerably Click to Continue

An inherited IRA, also known as a beneficiary IRA, can be received by a spouse, and a non-spouse. The definition of an inherited IRA is simply an individual retirement account that is left to a beneficiary after the owner deceases. The beneficiary must continue to receive the already calculated distributions from the current account if Click to Continue

An annuity is a tax deferred vehicle, but how are withdraws from a non-qualified annuity treated? The IRS distribution regulations for retirement accounts also apply to non-qualified annuities. However it’s only imposed on the portions of your withdraws that are considered growth. Once you depleted your growth, there will no longer be any IRS regulation Click to Continue

A lot of consumers think that just because a product has the highest income rollup, that they are going to receive the highest income payment. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. When comparing income rollups, there are three key elements to take into consideration and look at. Those three being age, payout percentage, and Click to Continue

If you are like many others, Social Security is a bit of a mystery. The Financial Samurai wrote a piece on what his SS would be. I recently signed up for My Social Security where anybody can track their Social Security benefits online. Even though I don’t count on Social Security in my passive Click to Continue

This is a question that comes up more than often, and it’s important for you to consult your local retirement specialist, or you may end up being penalized. The answer to the above question is yes. However, if you are not at your full retirement age, and earn more than certain limits, those benefits will Click to Continue

Retirement advice is sought after. It’s a topic that you can’t help but get into when you around like minded folks and the subject pops up. What should I do? What do you do? What do you think? I look at it like cooking, you may not know the finer points of how to do Click to Continue